Mass Effect Eclipse Phase: Transhuman Aliens
by curiousyellow
Summary: In a world where Humans are the aliens, their coming with shake the ME universe's worldview to its core. Transhuman Scifi Eclipse Phase comes to Space Opera Mass Effect universe. AU, no canon characters; rated M because EP loves body horror, and nothing in here is for kids.
1. Chapter 0

Title: Transhuman Aliens

Series Title: Mass Effect/ Eclipse Phase (MEEP)

Author: curiousyellow

COPYLEFT:

I don't own any IP involved in this work of fiction. Everything here should qualify as a parody. If you don't get the joke, then you're probably a lawyer. It is very dry humor. Also, I disavow the legitimacy of IP as a legitimate form of property. Do with this as you like. For more information, please read "Against Intellectual Monopoly" available for free at: (CENSORED BY SITE?).

METADATA:

This is a piece of fiction derived from the Eclipse Phase game I used to run. It's core theme: "What would happen if Transhumans from Eclipse Phase had their First Contact with the Space Opera Mass Effect setting during the Relay 314 Incident?" Continuity ends pretty much immediately, but people seem to think it's interesting anyway. If you hate this genre or kittens, you should leave immediately and go reread your Spock/Voldemort slash fics you love so much.

Eclipse Phase is amazing, check out their website: (CENSORED BY SITE?)

It is also CC-licensed, so PDF redistribution is permitted. Go google "eclipse phase pdf" and you can get a legal free copy for yourself.

* * *

Chapter 0:

"A Matrons Summary to Her Daughters (to be published in Household Digest)"

In the dawn of the modern Era, we had a galactic government, galaxy-wide FTL transportation, and our gravest concerns were about taxes. That all changed just over ten years ago... when we first met them... the aliens.

It's not a word that gets thrown around lightly in a galaxy containing dozens of species and civilizations, but they are "alien" through and through. Immortal, variable, inconsistent-nothing we knew prepared us for meeting them. Not the Turians during the Relay 314 Incident, not the Asari when the Diplomatic Mission disappeared into radioactive vapors, not the Salarians when their STG teams were caught by a sentient starship/office-building, not the Citadel before it disappeared.

The aliens word for themselves is strange too: "Transhumanity". Strange because we had to ensure we were translating it right more than once. "Humanity" in their tongue means something like "people" in my own, and it would refer to them all like "Asari" or "Krogan" refer to their respective races. That part is simple. "Trans-" is a modifier of words in their language, meaning "across", "through", or "change/transfer". When you put them together, you get nonsense. You can't call yourselves something like that with a straight face. One of the heretical researchers on Illium interviewed them to ask about it once. The response she got was: "Transhumanity are the people of change. We call ourselves this because we are very much in metamorphosis. What will we be when we are done? Who knows...? The answers I have seen are not my answers."

This philosophical load of bull has attracted the attention of too many. Admirers, competitors, it doesn't matter. Everyone who pays them the least attention has an opinion about Transhumanity. Not the least for the way that they and their philosophic dross have come to be so important in a time of change and upheaval.

As I'm sure I don't have to tell you, the Citadel disappeared without trace ten years ago, with all hands aboard. The Council vanished, the Fleet Headquarters vanished, and the heart of the Relay Network vanished. Immediate consequences were a severe interruption of trade and transit. With the Citadel gone, the galaxy-spanning Relay Network was broken into dozens of disconnected Spur Networks. Asari space was isolated in a way it hasn't been for thousands of years, back when we first walked among the stars. Interruptions in trade and sudden isolation from the community at large caused mass panic. Calls for help and guidance from the Council fell on deaf ears. Neighbors turned on one another when supplies that they had never thought to stockpile ran out. With Citadel Fleet unable to intervene, piracy thrived. Governments lost control over their people. The Citadel Council and the alliances it represented were dead.

In the decade that followed, we have done much to rebuild. Strong isolationist tendencies drove people stuck in a Spur Network to form their own governing bodies and militaries. The Asari city-states did quite well in this regard, falling back on ancient social structures to guide us even as we reestablished our civilization. The Turians likewise fell back on their ancient clan/colony structures. Larger-scale reintegration beyond the local Spur Network is much harder going though, even for ancient allies among the city-states.

Transgalactic trade is only just starting to recover. Though it took the better part of two years just to start bridging the Spur Networks on a regular basis, long term trade routes are being plotted out between adjacent Spur Networks. The journey is a long one, typically taking three months of transit-time to cross the gap between networks the long way, by flying from the closest adjacent Relay across empty space to another in a different network. However, with the breakdown in the Relay Network, the balance of trade has dramatically shifted. Goods that were once only economical to produce elsewhere suddenly need to be made locally, as well as the overall cost of shipping and manufacturing goods has drastically risen. It seems that the only industry experiencing a true boom is the H3 Fuel Industry. Supplies of H3 and EEZO never seem to be sufficient to meet demand, and the price of each keeps going up.

The real annoying part about what's happened since everything fell apart is how well the rest of the galaxy seems to be doing despite our hardships. With the Council gone, the Krogan are expanding like they just got done killing all the Rachni again, and the pirates out in the Terminus Systems are looking more and more like legitimate governments to the poor people they "tithe" from. Those smug Quarians have set themselves up as the new merchant and transport companies. The lot of them are just exploiting our temporary weakness to reposition themselves where they can exact revenge on us for centuries of perceived mistreatment.

As for the troublemakers themselves, Transhumanity has been strangely quiet. Their only contact with the city-state I live in during the last 10 years has been when we turned away a merchant convoy. What they are doing, I haven't the slightest idea. Official word from the Turians is that they are "contained" behind Relay 314 and only Transhumans who were already on this side of the Relay when the Citadel was lost are still in former Citadel Space. That's why you should...

[[-Signal Interrupt Caught: SIGNAL-4 STREAM REDIRECT-]]

...This interruption brought to you by SURTHEIM LOGISTICS: "When you want it moved faster than light, you want SURTHEIM!"...

Transhuman dross indeed. Why the Turians continue to deny our existence being beyond their control, I have no idea. They cling desperately to their order, so maybe it scares them to see the cracks in their foundation. Speculation.

Truth can be frightening. I'm here to give you a little of it. There's big things happening! You can be a part of it too. Leave the false comfort of whatever city-state you're currently in. Point your browser at one of the linked addresses, and connect to our Proxies. Bypass the censored media you're stuck with, and come hear the truth. Your government has taken a page from the Batarian play-books. Nothing your media gives you is true. Reject their memes! Grab some of your own!

...And now back to your regularly scheduled "Household Digest" article. Who reads that crap?...

[[-Redirect Halt-]]

...That's why you shouldn't worry about Transhumans. Wherever they are, whatever they are doing, they can't reach us here at home. We can safely stand together, and remember that whatever hardships we've had to endure, we are still the oldest and strongest civilization in the galaxy. There is nothing that we haven't overcome to be where we are, and we shall continue to do as we have always done before: overcome!

* * *

(The following text is quoted from the Eclipse Phase website, and provides a nice summary of the Eclipse Phase setting by the publishers, Posthuman Studios. Since I can't link directly to them on this site, please look them up yourselves. This text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License)

Humanity stands on the cusp of a new age, with accelerated technological growth converging toward a singularity point, promising an undreamt-of future. Despite the ecopocalypse and social upheavals on Earth, humanity has conquered the solar system and partially terraformed Mars. Advancements in biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science have transformed our lives. Everyone is wirelessly networked with the world around them, AIs process vast amounts of information, and nano-fabrication enables people to "print" complex devices from the molecular level—at home. Biotechnology allows people to genefix, enhance, and clone their bodies, while others pursue body modifications to adapt to new environments or make themselves into something no longer quite human. People's minds and memories can be digitized, uploaded, transferred over long distances, and downloaded into new bodies (biological or synthetic). Death has been defeated—for those who can afford it.

From within, disaster struck. Transhumanity reaped the rewards of its arrogance when conflict spiked between the battered nations of Earth, already weakened by decades of climate catastrophes and other disruptive factors. Rampant netwars soon exploded into physical conflicts with spiraling body counts. In the midst of these aggressions, a group of military AIs known as TITANS quietly achieved full sentience and autonomy, and rapidly began exponentially incrementing their own intellectual growth. The AI intelligences spawned by this hard-takeoff singularity quickly turned against transhumanity, enveloping the system in unprecedented levels of violence, disaster, and warfare. What began as a whirlwind of conflict between political factions, revolutionaries, and hypercorps soon escalated into a struggle between man and machine.

In just a few years, transhumanity was nearly wiped out with nuclear strikes, biowarfare plagues, destructive nanoswarms, infowar attacks, mass uploads, and other unexplained singularity events, ripping the superpowers of old to pieces. Our planetary home—Earth—was transformed into a toxic and strange hellhole, while many major habitats were left frozen sarcophagi in the vacuum of space. Just as quickly as they came, the TITANS disappeared, taking millions of uploaded minds with them, leaving behind a network of wormhole gateways. Known as Pandora Gates, these poorly-understood devices allow instantaneous teleportation to distant star systems—often one-way and/or fatal. Though only a handful of Pandora Gates are known to exist—each highly contested—the foolish, brave, curious, and desperate are already risking certain death to enter and explore what lies beyond.

In the aftermath of the Fall, transhumanity lives on, divided into a patchwork of hypercorp combines, survivalist stations, transhuman faction species, and city-state habitats. Under the oppressive police states of immortal inner-system oligarchies, advanced technologies remain highly restricted, and refugee infomorphs are held in virtual slavery or resleeved in robotic bodies and forced into indentured labor. In the outer system, rebel transhuman scientists and techno-anarchists struggle to maintain a new society—from each according to their imagination and to each according to their need. And on the fringes and in the niches lurk networked tribes of political extremists, religious fanatics, criminal entrepeneurs, and bizarre posthumans, among other, stranger, and more alien things ...

Though most claim the Fall was carefully orchestrated by the out-of-control TITANS, others whisper that the driving powers behind the wars—both AI and transhuman—were infected by a mutating virus with multiple infection vectors—biological, information, nano—dubbed the Exsurgent virus. Whatever its source, this virus has been known to sometimes transform its victims into something unexplainable ... something monstrous and reality-altering. Whatever the truth, the remnants of the TITANS and this virus were left to the desolated ruins or driven to the edges of the system, where they remain hidden away in dark corners, quietly waiting to infect the minds of the scavengers and explorers who find them ...


	2. Chapter 1

Title: Transhuman Aliens

Series Title: Mass Effect/ Eclipse Phase (MEEP)

Author: curiousyellow

COPYLEFT:

I don't own any IP involved in this work of fiction. Everything here should qualify as a parody. If you don't get the joke, then you're probably a lawyer. It is very dry humor. Also, I disavow the legitimacy of IP as a legitimate form of property. Do with this as you like. For more information, please read "Against Intellectual Monopoly" available for free at: (CENSORED BY SITE?).

METADATA:

This is a piece of fiction derived from the Eclipse Phase game I used to run. It's core theme: "What would happen if Transhumans from Eclipse Phase had their First Contact with the Space Opera Mass Effect setting during the Relay 314 Incident?" Continuity ends pretty much immediately, but people seem to think it's interesting anyway. If you hate this genre or kittens, you should leave immediately and go reread your Spock/Voldemort slash fics you love so much.

Eclipse Phase is amazing, check out their website: (CENSORED BY SITE?)

It is also CC-licensed, so PDF redistribution is permitted. Go google "eclipse phase pdf" and you can get a legal free copy for yourself.

* * *

SETTING NOTE: ASARI MIRRORING REFLEX  
In order to bring the magically perfect Asari into EP, I redesigned their magic psychic powers to function using something much closer to EP core physics (not PSI). Instead, their head-flanges are effectively a large highly-sensitive electro-sensitive organ. Their mythic empathy powers are based on the "Asari Mirroring Reflex", where they involuntarily adjust themselves based on the surface emotional activity of their conversational partners. On the plus side, they know how you feel, on the down side, they experience a very stressful uncanny-valley response when dealing with something with a cyberbrain (from EP). In this story, the use of a tuned antenna can cause unpleasant sensations.

Look for more of these notes, where relevant. I may eventually collect them in a separate notes document.

* * *

Chapter 1:  
Nos Astra 2145 CE (AF 25)

"Recorder On. Interview Log #0044-89. Identify present: Archivist Berena, Illium Citizens Wardi and Rotu." read Archivist Berena from rote memory, into a small hanging microphone in the middle of the Republic of Illium Intelligence Service (RIIS) interview room. Blandly efficient, the room consisted of all brushed metal furniture; a square table with four chairs arranged around it. Three chairs each held an Asari, two of which looked like nervous school-girls called into the principal's office. The remaining one, the Archivist, looked more bored than anything. She wore a shapeless gray one-piece suit, with a tiny gold pin on her collar depicting a stylized eye.  
"When you and your mother, Matriarch Eastid, first brought these strange messages you've been receiving before me, I thought you were making it up. If I was rude before, it's only because we get a lot of false reports here at RIIS. There's SPAM out there thats particularly annoying, and which looks for all the world like the messages the two of you showed me."

The older of the two sisters, Wardi, nodded her head in agreement, while the younger pursed her lips and spoke, "You believe us now? What changed the from the first two times we tried to get you to look at this? You had security escort us out last time," she said leaning onto the table and pointing her finger accusingly at the Archivist. "...and would have again if we hadn't brought our mother to vouch for us! Aren't you supposed to look out for this crap?"

Wardi put her hand on her younger sisters back, interrupting with a low steady voice, "Which is why she just apologized Rotu. Look she even turned on the recorder this time, that means she's doing something official right?" She stared meaningfully at Berena.

"Of course," said Berena, "this interview is being recorded for later. If it contains anything useful about the Transhumans, we don't want to miss anything." Rotu sat back down looking smugly satisfied. "Now, the statement that you gave before, could you repeat it here for the recorder?"

Wardi leaned forward to carefully talk directly at the small microphone. "The two of us each received this message while we were at University, having lunch together. Our mother had sent us a link to the Household Digest article that they were going to publish from her, and while we were reading it, we simultaneously got that weird message about the Transhumans."

Rotu perked up at this point, apparently eager to share her half of the story. "Then I totally clicked on one of the links they sent us. Ten seconds later, and I wasn't on the Extranet anymore, but my browser was still working. It redirected me to a page that welcomed me to 'The Mesh'." She held out her browser, and pressed a button to bring the page up. "It's still working too, see? I just don't know how to browse it, all the addresses are messed up. When I punch in ExtraSearch, it gives me some kind of 'address not-found' message."

Berena looked from across the table, and indeed, the most used search engine on the Extranet was gone. When she reached across the table to try herself, the browser turned off. Her face screwed up in confusion, certain that she hadn't hit the off-switch on the side of the tablet-shaped browser. Pressing the power button did no good.  
Flipping it over showed the battery was working as well. In frustration, she slid it back to Rotu, saying "Fix it."

As soon as Rotu touched it, the browser turned back on. Berena's eyes narrowed, and on a hunch, she quickly stood up, and poked the browser in Rotu's hands. While the girls both stared at this strange behavior from someone they had assumed to be an office drone, Berena only looked at the browser. It turned off at her touch again. Withdrawing her hand, it turned back on. She bit her lip staring at the browser.

"Listen girls, I need to go to the bathroom. Do you want anything to drink when I come back? I think we've got some Tupari in the fridge." Neither was interested, and they said as much. "Alright then, I'll be back in a little bit."

* * *

When Berena had closed the door, she rushed as fast as she dared in the narrow office hallway, and came to her office. Behind the hollow plastic of the door, lay the nest of towering papers and tablet-readers that she had accumulated since moving into an office with a real door. Upon entering, she pulled the door tightly shut, and locked it. Sitting down, she pulled the phone across the desk, from underneath a pile of old Tupari Sport cans, and quickly punched in a number she had recently memorized.

"Hello, RIIS Administrator Hheark's office, who may I ask is calling?" spoke a clearly too-articulate secretary.

"Tell Hheark that I'm calling, and its important. Interrupt his nap."

"I don't know what you're talking about or who you are..."

"Tell him that the Justicar's Project has a live lead!"

"Please hold..."

Seconds later, a groggy krogan voice answered, "What's so damn important that you're interrupting my beauty sleep? Keep in mind that I'm already past cranky and going on up to pissed if this is another stupid..."

"Hheark, quit, stop! I need a sweep team to confirm it, but I think I have a live lead on the Justicar's Project. They're down in interview room E."

"Fine. You'll get one in 15 minutes, but don't wake me back up unless they find something this time."

* * *

Roughly 15 minutes later, the two young asari were talking quietly in the interview room.

"I think she fell in," said Rotu.

"Don't be so rude, I'm sure she's just talking to the people on the other side of the two-way mirror." Wardi said, pointing at the large mirror opposite her.

Rotu got up and walked over to the mirror. Closing her eyes, she tilted her head from side to side, feeling with her senses for any minds behind the glass. "No, even with all this crap in the way, I'd be able to feel something behind here." Her hand swept broadly at the wall. "I think we're alone Wardi."

"Fine, be rude then. She fell in, and got sucked into the water recyclers. The next time you drink a glass of water, that little gold pin will be sitting the in the bottom of the glass." Wardi gave a little smirk.

"Exactly sis!" Rotu smiled impishly. "Which is why I'm going to go get something to drink from the vending machine we walked past on the way here. I don't want any gold getting caught in my teeth. I hope they have juice or something, I hate Tupari."

"Why didn't you just accept her offer earlier?"

"Why didn't you? I bet you want a juice or tea."

"... Tea. I don't know, I wasn't thirsty earlier. Boredom? It wouldn't be so bad if the browser was working."

Rotu got up to walk out the door, and turned back to her sister, "Tea. Gotcha. I still don't like her. Can't I be spiteful without you calling me on it?"

"No."

Both smiled as Rotu left for the hallway.

* * *

As coincidences go, having the younger sister leave just prior to the sweep team's arrival is not a particularly big one. It is compounded of course, by the fact that another unmarked black vehicle arrived on the roof parking deck at the same time. Additional coincidences would build, until the odds of this happening accidentally were so astronomically low as to be impossible.

Coincidence one: the vending machine closest to the interview room was rather mysteriously broken, sitting in the hallway with all of its buttons blinking, and the small text field displaying the price only in strange broken characters, which Rotu could not read, "RUNRUNRUNRUN".

Coincidence two: the next vending machine was on the balcony just outside the main stairs of the RIIS offices, coincidentally outdoors and with a clear line of sight to the edge of the roof parking deck. Rotu did not look up, but if she had she would have seen figures in black on the roof looking rather pointedly at her. Instead, the glare of the sun made her stare at the vending machine with her hand shading her eyes.

Coincidence three: when the sweep team was in place behind the two-way mirror in the interview room, Wardi noticed them when they began their broad-spectrum scan. When this happened, she looked up at the mirror where the penetrating buzzing sensation originated from. This prevented her from seeing the same broken characters that Rotu had seen on the vending machine being printed on the screen of her browser: "RUNRUNRUNRUN".

Coincidence four: when the sweep team registered a positive on their sweep of the browser tablet, it flickered briefly before lighting itself on fire and disgorging a plume of strange blue smoke.

Coincidence five: the blue smoke immediately triggered the building's fire alarms, triggering a mass evacuation of the RIIS offices down to the street-access level. During this confusion, both Wardi and Rotu managed to get shuffled off of the surveillance cameras around the building.

Conclusion: These were not coincidences.

* * *

Wardi had been taken by the sweep team during the confusion into a "clean room". She hadn't put up much resistance during the trip down the hallway, but she was wishing she had. It was humiliating to be stripped naked and scrubbed with nasty green and yellow caustics. They gave her a shot of something, as soon as she started to complain. Blacking out, she saw Archivist Berena recording her as she pathetically fought the encroaching darkness. Her tongue felt thick dry, "Ber... Berena. Where is Rotu? I... I don't see...". At that, she slipped and fell onto a floor grate, thinking to herself that it probably would have hurt if she weren't so numb.

On the other hand, Rotu found herself on a balcony with a vending machine and a number of people in black military uniforms who had seemingly appeared out of thin air. Salarians maybe? It was hard to tell with so much equipment hiding their shapes.

They were all armed, and pointing their rifles at her in a semicircle. All except one. This exception was holding a backpack sized box with a cable attaching it to a hand-held antenna. This antenna was being waved at her, while the box made a rather terrible whirring noise. Her senses could pick up the frantic electrical activity hidden inside the plastic of the box, even if she didn't knew what it did.

"Target Acquired! Neutralizing RF broadcast!" the one with the box shouted.

It gave her a sensation somewhere between queasy and itchy to have the antenna pointed at her. "What the Fuck!" she yelled loud enough that several of the soldiers tightened their grips on the guns. "I'm trying to help you people! Uhhgh... Turn off that thing! I'm gonna..." As if she had said the magic words, she fell to her hands and knees and heaved everything she had eaten that day back up onto the tiles of the balcony.

At the same time, she heard a metallic thunk noise. She couldn't be bothered to see what it was, but reflected in the wet vomit she saw some kind of strobe-effect with bright flashes of light. She could smell smoke. Everything exploded in a blur of motion for Rotu. Starting with her own startle reaction from the bang, she immediately backed into the vending machine while looking desperately at what horrible thing could have happened to her. Staring down at her chest, she found only lingering stains of vomit instead of the deep blue blood she was fearing.

Confused, but not shot, she noticed the buzzing from the antenna had stopped. Looking up, most of the soldiers were stamping around randomly, pawing at their eyes through rough black gloves. On the ground lay scraps of metal and plastic, and irregular scorch marks on the tile, parts of which were still molten. Smoke hung fresh and dense in the air, smelling cloyingly sweet, and sticking inexplicably to her throat.

Still unsteady from the antenna's effects, she braced herself on the vending machine and stood up. Walking as quickly as she dared, she wound her way through the apparently blinded soldiers. Ducking carefully around swinging rifles, and other dangerous projections, she found her way through the cloud of smoke.

Stepping past the edge of the cloud, she was confronted by two soldiers who evidently avoided whatever blinded the others. She saw the one level his barrel at her, and she coiled like a spring ready to jump anywhere besides where she stood. He stared at her through his visor, and she stared back, each trying to outguess the other.

They were so preoccupied with this, that neither noticed the other soldier was facing towards the sun, and firing his rifle repeatedly at a rapidly approaching vehicle. It was a red painted skycar delivery truck, with the side doors open and a pair of asari hanging out the side forming a barrier of swirling purple. Driving the skycar almost straight at the building, the soldier who was firing had to duck as it flew at roughly head-level over the balcony.

The other soldier was not as lucky, however. Being distracted as he was with trying to figure out which way Rotu would dodge, he failed to duck. The front fender met his helmet, and kept going. Though the helmet would stop a bullet, it would not prevent the torque of the motion from bending his neck quickly past the breaking point. Rotu heard the wet snap before she registered mentally what was happening. It was like seeing a rag-doll folded in half.

She was still staring with her mouth agape when she felt herself being lifted into the air. A purple envelope of biotic energy was pulling her upward toward the open side of the skycar. She glimpsed one of the asari hanging out the door, obviously focusing on maintaining the field. Rotu felt her fate being pulled away from her, and something inside her stood straight and steely. "No!" she screamed "Fuck you! I'm not going with anyone!" With that, she fought back against the pull with all of the meager biotic energy she could manage. She saw the purple envelope quaver and lose strength. Just enough that she grabbed onto the nearby railing, and held her ground.

Nearby, the soldiers' eyes had apparently cleared well enough to shoot again, and they fired on the skycar as fast as they could without overheating their rifles. From inside the now hovering skycar, she could just make out one of the asari shouting: "Damn it, we can't get her in like this without breaking her, and we can't get out and damn well talk with the commandos." The distinctive voice of a turian answered, "Use the fucking robot. MULE SIGHUP!"

Robots of any sort were unusual, but the robot Rotu saw scamper out of the skycar looked unlike any she had ever seen. When it landed on all four legs like some kind of wild animal, she saw that it had no head or neck, nor did it really seem to have a front or back. It had to be two meters long, with long spindly legs that looked like they were meant for running that brought its back up to about eye level. It walked jerkily between the soldiers and the skycar, and some unseen speaker began speaking at a volume loud enough to be heard through gunfire.

"MULE CAUGHT SIGNAL SIGHUP. SEARCH AND RESCUE MODE DISABLED. DESKTOP MODE ENABLED." it blared in a monotone. "Warning," it began, while two large guns swung out from its sides on articulated armatures and began firing wildly into the crowd of soldiers "please save your work and close all open programs." Bullets rang against its armor, several tearing massive holes into its flanks. Its own guns fired much faster, and tended to blow apart anyone whose shields went down into chunky salsa. If Rotu knew what she was looking at, she might have noticed that the MULE was not a particularly good shot, but more than made up the difference in volume and enthusiasm.

It's strange monologue continued. "The administrator has signaled that this server will be halting in 45 seconds. Save your work, and log out to avoid a loss of data." With half of the soldiers down, the remainder eagerly retreated to a more defensible position behind the doors leading into the building. Dragging one of their wounded behind them as they went, and the MULE followed them. It blared, "Warning, the administrator has signaled that this server will be halting in 30 seconds." It open fire with both guns on the wounded soldier. His shielding briefly flickered before being overloaded by the barrage of metal. Several rounds got through, and the soldier who had been pulling on his wounded ally found himself falling backwards and losing his balance. He still held the hands of the wounded soldier, but the entire upper torso had been cut clean from the rest of the body by the bullets. "Please save your work and log out to avoid a loss of data."

With the soldiers momentarily preoccupied, Rotu found herself unsure of which way to go. On the one hand, the balcony wasn't big enough to avoid either group, but she certainly wasn't a strong enough biotic to survive a jump of this height. The soldiers in black certainly weren't friendly, but she didn't want to go with people who had just tried to kidnap her. Her decision was made slightly clearer by the one asari who had tried to pull her biotically into the skycar, shouting to her over the gunfire.

"Rotu! Listen, I'm not here to hurt you or anything! But you need to get your ass in this truck right the fuck now! That robot isn't going to last forever." the asari shouted. "We're from the Transhuman Network; we just want to talk! Your family is in danger!"

While Rotu still didn't like them and their robot, the damn asari had done it. She had gotten Rotu's attention. Danger and spite could wait. She jumped on board the skycar. Once she was on board, the turian in the driver's seat called out, "MULE SIGCONT! Back to Dock!"

"MULE CAUGHT SIGNAL SIGCONT. SERVER SHUTDOWN INTERRUPTED. DESKTOP MODE DISABLED. SEARCH AND RESCUE MODE ENABLED. BACK TO DOCK. " At that, its guns withdrew into its sides with a snap. One of its legs was shot to the point of uselessness, so it hopped on the other three back into the skycar. All aboard, the skycar sped off with much gunfire from the balcony.

* * *

AUTHOR NOTE: Feedback welcome! To get better at writing fiction, I need to hear what people think about my work. Please either review it or message me via . Should I edit a chapter, I'll mark a revision note to clarify for whoever sees it.


	3. Chapter 2

Title: What She Was Told

Series Title: Mass Effect/ Eclipse Phase (MEEP)

Author: curiousyellow

COPYLEFT:

I don't own any IP involved in this work of fiction. Everything here should qualify as a parody. If you don't get the joke, then you're probably a lawyer. It is very dry humor. Also, I disavow the legitimacy of IP as a legitimate form of property. Do with this as you like. For more information, please read "Against Intellectual Monopoly" available for free at: (CENSORED BY SITE?).

METADATA:

This is a piece of fiction derived from the Eclipse Phase game I used to run. It's core theme: "What would happen if Transhumans from Eclipse Phase had their First Contact with the Space Opera Mass Effect setting during the Relay 314 Incident?" Continuity ends pretty much immediately, but people seem to think it's interesting anyway. If you hate this genre or kittens, you should leave immediately and go reread your Spock/Voldemort slash fics you love so much.

Eclipse Phase is amazing, check out their website: (CENSORED BY SITE?)

It is also CC-licensed, so PDF redistribution is permitted. Go google "eclipse phase pdf" and you can get a legal free copy for yourself.

* * *

Wardi wanted to biotically slam Berenas head into the floor for the horrible treatment she'd received at the RIIS Archivists hands, but Wardi was barely biotic enough to move a sheet of paper-slightly. As it happened, she had to make due with being foul at Berena as the older Asari sat across the table from her, trying to make polite conversation. It was a different table, in a different room, with a whole bunch of weird metal cages surrounding an otherwise normal table and cot. For the last half an hour, Berena had been trying to talk to her, and Wardi had been pointedly giving her the silent treatment and staring at the cot like it covered in fine literature. When she pulled the silent treatment on her sister, Rotu tended to snap in a matter of minutes. Berena didn't appear to have noticed yet, and just kept talking.

"It's hard for people like me to put myself in your shoes." said Berena. "You don't know anything-not what has been going on, not why it matters. You have no idea what scares me and my colleagues so much that we forceably abducted and stripped a kid like you. It's hard for me to see the world the way I used to, but I can help you understand me." The Archivist paused, taking a thick paper file-folder from a previously unnoticed case near her feet, and placed in on the table in front of Wardi. Glancing at the folder, Wardi could see a very official looking notice stamped on it in red ink: "SENSITIVE DO NOT DUPLICATE". Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. Berena pulled a pen and legal form out of the same case, and placed them next to the folder. "Sign this Non-Disclosure Agreement, and you can read as much of this Dossier as you like. Deal? I know it's marked 'SENSITIVE', but there's a definite need to know involved here."

As much as she wanted to continue giving Berena the silent treatment, Wardi's curiosity got the better of her. She looked over the legal form. Non-disclosure agreements tend to be pretty standard aside from the penalty for breaking them, so she scanned for that. Near the bottom, in large helpful print, the form promised to charge her with "treason" for talking about it. She stopped for a moment, wondering what the hell she had gotten herself into. Staring at the pen, she knew that her mind had made itself up the moment she chose to read the form, even if she didn't want to consciously admit it. It felt like she was in the spy movies she used to watch when she was younger, but her rational side reminded her that treason often carries a fuck you kind of sentence when you're convicted. She shut her eyes and grabbed the pen, only opening them after she had messily scrawled her name on the form. Seeing this, Berena put the form and pen back in her bag and leaned forward, looking Wardi in the eye.

"We have been cooperating with the Justicars," said Berena, "to archive intelligence to help them decide whether or not Transhumanity is inherently opposed to their codes, but now we have a live lead, a chance to find out what the Transhumans are really up to. You and your sister have been targeted by a Transhuman called Surt... formerly Ambassador Surt of the Automists' Alliance, and the CEO of Surtheim Logistics. Every time something suspicious or inexplicable has happened with Transhumans, Surt has been conveniently absent. But now, he's slipped up! You and your browser were covered with spy nanomachines-its why it turned off when anyone other than you touched it. Surt was watching you... probably for weeks... before he sent you that message. He wants to talk to you... for reasons I don't fully understand, but what I do understand is that those spy nanomachines had to have been physically placed on you. Either he is close enough nearby to infect you with his spys, or one of his agents is."

Momentarily, Wardi forget she was mad, and stared with mouth agape at Berena. Sensing that her audience was finally paying attention, Berena continued. "Earlier, when you were man-handled and dragged into the basement Faraday Cage, we had to scrub you down before the spy nanomachines could turn deadly. It's happened before. There's pictures in there if you don't believe me. The last spy victims weren't found until it was too late for us to help them. You were lucky though. This Department needs your cooperation to take advantage of this lead, and we really can't force you to help us. As pissed as you seem to be now, I'll delay asking you till you've calmed down."

With that, Wardi was left alone in the Faraday Cage staring at the folder. She opened it, to find a note inside earmarking the folder as a RIIS dossier about Transhumans. She had heard her mothers views on them, and understood that they were controversial in the news, but she didn't otherwise know very much about them. Since they seemed to be interested in her, she resolved to find out what the fuck was really going on that scared the RIIS staff so much that they sealed her in a radio-proof cage.

* * *

This first document that caught her eye was a small one on top of the stack. It was labeled, "Official Codex Entry Transhumans", and was dated just prior to the Citadel's disappearance.

"""  
Official Codex Entry "Transhumans":  
First encountered during the Relay 314 Incident of last year, this enigmatic race is a newcomer to galactic society. Known primarily through limited interactions with small Expeditionary groups, they are thought to possess advanced technology. Suspected to originate from the quarantined system beyond Relay 314, the home-world of the Transhumans has been identified as "Earth", though its exact location is unknown. Transhumans are mammalian bipeds of similar size to Turians or Asari. Many are known to have extensive cybernetic enhancements, which is apparently common in their culture. Ongoing concerns over their interests in AI have halted technological trade. An unofficial cease-fire has been reached with Transhumans over their base in the Krogan DMZ. Contact with Transhumans has been suspended due to failed armistice negotiations. Pending a resumption of diplomatic relations, the Council has issued a Writ of Interdiction against Transhumans, barring their entry to Citadel Space.

At the bottom of the page is a handwritten note explaining that the entry was accepted for publication in the next Codex update, but the Citadel disappeared before it could be distributed.

* * *

Beneath that, she found another Codex entry, this time labeled as part of the "Illium Spur Network" Edition of the Codex. Such a thing didn't exist yet, but there were rumors that one was being compiled. She looked at the printout to find it contained several related Codex Entries.

"""  
Codex (Illium Spur Network Edition)

(Transhumans on Illium)  
Following Citadel Interdiction roughly ten years ago, all Transhumans were barred from Citadel Space. Within a month of that event, a Transhuman Embassy was established in Nos Astra to promote dialog and trade between the Transhumans and the Asari. Representing the Transhuman faction calling itself the Autonomists' Alliance, the embassy negotiated an agreement enabling Transhumans to settle on Illium and use the surrounding space as a a free trade zone, provided that they followed the appropriate product labeling laws. As a result, more than 50000 Transhumans have passed through Illium on their way to see the rest of the galaxy, with nearly 10000 of them taking up permanent residences on Illium itself.

In keeping with the trade agreements, the Transhumans were permitted to live and act under the contract-based legal systems negotiated by the original Ambassadorial staff, and were not subject to, nor protected by, Illium criminal codes. Being unprotected by Illium law resulted in them being preyed upon by Illium natives, giving them the highest per capita murder rate in the system. Strong pressures like this prevented integration into the Illium community, and led to the formation of Transhuman ghettos where mutual defense against aggressors was easier. Many Ghettos formed in places which were otherwise completely uninhabitable by Asari or Krogan: underwater, in open space, and at the scorchingly hot ground-level underneath Illium Arcologies. Transhumans venturing out of Ghettos typically do so only while well armed, leading to a public perception of them as being inherently violent.

Cultural exchange between Illium natives and Transhumans has been limited by gross differences in understanding. Transhumans claim that they have a variety of arts and media that are simply inaccessible to Asari and other beings lacking the implants that are so common among Transhumans. Cultural biases against augmentation among the Asari has led to very few Illium natives receiving the required implants. Many Asari experience physical illness and mental anguish at even being exposed to Transhumans and their implants, a fact that reinforces their cultural biases with physical sensation, leading to a conditioned disgust at meeting Transhumans at all. Academics and Liberal factions among Asari politics recognize these issues as being key reasons why Transhumans on Illium are by-and-large treated as second-class citizens. While their efforts to single these issues out for correction via legislation are marked, more conservative factions (especially those related to the military and government) block them. The strongest reactions against Transhumans come from those communities which are closest to the Ghettos, where those living there claim that the liberals are unaware of the realities of the Ghettos and grossly underestimate the difficulty of integration.

(Illium Transhuman Integration Act Update)  
Roughly five years ago, the Integration Act was passed by a slim margin of liberal support. Its stated aim is to address the root issues keeping the Transhumans from fully integrating into Illium culture. Among its provisions are registration requirements which provide a route to citizenship for Transhumans who have lived on Illium for at least 3 years, as well as provisions to break up the institutions of the Transhuman Ghettos. The Integration Act requires that unregistered Transhumans leave the surface of Illium, which has resulted in roughly three quarters of the population of Transhumans vanishing. Government estimates project that the missing Transhumans have mostly moved either into the deep seas, or up into space. Those remaining Transhumans have embraced the road to citizenship which includes integration training that will help them overcome their history of violence and distrust, as well as their unhealthy reliance on implant technology, to become model Illium citizens.

(Transhuman Underground Update)  
A fringe group supporting Transhuman Independence, the self-named Transhuman Underground protests the treatment of Transhumans following the Integration Act. Often seen at political events and rallies, the Underground consists mainly of non-Transhuman members-primarily Salarian and Krogan with a minority of maiden Asari. While the Underground has yet to violate any laws, they are considered a public nuisance, and many companies refuse to deal with them. Sympathizers are known to donate regularly to the group to make up for the difficulties in procuring products and services that they face with the wider world.

(Autonomists' Alliance)  
Speculated to be the dominant faction among many governing the Transhuman homeworld of Earth, their involvement with the embassy on Illium has been controversial. Many have declared the relationship between the Republic of Illium and the Alliance one sided, with the Alliance securing free transit rights as well as colonization license of its citizens, and giving almost nothing in return to Illium. Trade and transit agreements only permit Transhumans to travel to Illium from Earth, and forbids any travel to Earth. Only trade has been uncontentious, with parties on both Illium and the Alliance participating commercially. Since the disappearance of the Citadel, the Alliance has discontinued contact with Illium. While no one is sure why, some speculate that they seek to distance themselves from the remnants of the Citadel Council, perhaps to set themselves up to fill the vacuum of power. Others claim that they have withdrawn because the Citadel Interdiction is now unenforceable, and Illium simply lost interest for them. Other than a few basic facts, almost nothing is known about the Alliance. They keep no standing military, nor do they have a unified legal system or currency, but they do have a Constitutional Charter called the "Points of Unity" (quoted below [AUTHOR CC NOTICE: this is from the Rimward book, I do not own it]):  
1) We demand autonomy, self-organization, and self-governance for all sapient beings.  
2) We support direct democracy and forms of organization where sapients collectively decide their own future.  
3) We promote mutual aid and reciprocating altruism between sapients.  
4) We affirm the right to engage in self-defense against oppression and coercive authority and stand in solidarity with sapients so attacked.

(Transhumans and EEZO)  
By all reports, Transhumanity had never come into contact with EEZO or Mass Effect Fields until they first encountered Citadel Civilization via Relay 314. From what scholars have pieced together, EEZO simply doesn't occur in their volume of space in any usable form. Instead, their technology is based on designs which do not incorporate EEZO or Mass Effect Fields at all. While some importation of EEZO has occurred for research purposes, it does not appear that they have any great demand for it. As such, any Transhuman technologies have designs which are incomprehensible to galactic engineers since many core assumptions about the design of artifacts simply don't apply. This has led to a hesitancy among other races to adopt Transhuman technologies, knowing that they simply could not fix it if it broke.

(Transhuman Spaceships)  
Given their lack of EEZO, the fact that Transhumans still have FTL spaceships is a mystery. While the Spaceships only started appearing in galactic records years after meeting the Transhumans, their ability to travel at FTL speeds without EEZO have been well observed. The most common ship design of this type looks like a black icosahedron, and lack any readily identifiable drive system. Engineering specialist have noted the ships cannot enter atmosphere, and produce vast amounts of radiation. No one claims to have seen the ships actually traveling during FTL, but they are often witnessed after such transits radiating waste heat and radiation through gigantic retractable radiator spars. Top scholars speculate that the ships FTL drives utilize physics that are entirely unknown in the wider galaxy. TRAVEL WARNING: Do not approach a Transhuman spaceship while it is operating. Merchant dialog protocols can be used to request a skiff or shuttle to visit you. This warning is both due to the deadly radiation that these ships give off being unintentionally dangerous, as well as many recorded events of ships being fired upon by even apparently empty Transhuman ships.

(Transhuman Medicine)  
The one area in which the Transhuman technology accels is in medicine. Among their own kind, they long ago eradicated disease and plague, and found a way to apparently render themselves immortal. While no one would argue at the effectiveness of their medicines, many Asari philosophers and theologians speculate at what cost the Transhumans have made themselves free of disease and death. By their own admission, many of their medical accomplishments come about through genetic engineering and gene tampering-two technologies that have long outlawed in Citadel Space. Further, their claims of conquering death are also under scrutiny. They claim to capture the dead and place them into new bodies to return to life like an Asari would wake from a dream. Theological debates rage over the nature of the soul with relation to the mind, and Transhuman immortality has been taken as the new exemplar for these arguments. While a majority of Asari on Illium want no part of Transhuman Medicines, a small minority have received treatment without long term ill effects. Krogan dwelling on Illium have no such reservations, and commonly attend Transhuman clinics for Genophage therapy. Similarly, local Quarians have utilized these clinics for immunological purposes, allowing many to live without the fear of death due to suit punctures. Illium government is currently debating whether these kinds of clinics should be allowed to continue without the oversight of the traditional medical licensing boards.

(Post-Citadel Banned Product Development Controversy)  
Prior to the disappearance of the Citadel, a major barrier to peace with the Transhumans was their continued unhealthy interest in developing several dangerous banned technologies. From their illegal augmentation research, to their treaty-violating creation of unshackled AIs, to their implied research into various planet-destroyer grade weapons technologies, the Council would not budge an inch. The Citadel issued an ultimatum: adhere to our bans or be forever forbidden from Citadel Space. The Transhumans apparently chose to leave than give up their designs. Now that the Citadel is gone, the Treaties that keep these bans in place have fallen under public scrutiny. As Illium was designated a free-trade zone (and is not itself a signor to the Treaties), the products of these banned research are not technically illegal, though they are heavily regulated. Transhuman developers have complained bitterly of unnecessary bureaucratic restrictions on their research and product development, but the majority surveyed in Illium Polls strongly support current regulations or seek to restrict them further. There has been a strong conservative motion to force Illium to sign the Treaties itself, and fully ban the technologies. This has met protests from both those Illium natives with commercial interests in the regulated industries, as well as those Transhumans who claim to be Unshackled AIs themselves. A leading voice in these protests is the Autonomists' Alliance Ambassador, Surt (of Surtheim Logistics Co). He contends that he and everyone at his company are not only AIs, but people too, with legal rights that would be violated by such legislation. Detractors contend that AIs are nonpersons under the law, and that the employees of Surtheim Logistics Co are technically the joint property of the corporate stakeholders.

(Ongoing Translation Issues Pertaining to Transhuman Language)  
Unlike many other galactic species, the Transhumans apparently maintain dozens of unique languages. While they communicate amongst themselves in a strange babel of unrelated tongues, they commonly shift to speaking Krogan when talking to galactic races. A historical artifact of their early contact with Tuchanka, their linguists took great pains to learn to speak Krogan, and shared this proficiency via Transhuman translator software. Many Krogan claim that speaking with a Transhuman in the Krogan tongue is like being insulted by a master poet-a concept which is highly complementary in Krogan culture. In the three years between the appearance of Transhumans, and the disappearance of the Citadel, standard galactic translator updates had been issued to correct some of the more egregious errors in speaking to Transhumans via secondary Krogan translation software. Contrary to popular belief, the corrections are required to eliminate many untranslatable nuances that the Transhumans speaking Krogan utilize during normal conversation. Scholars claim that these corrections indicate that current translation software may not be treating colloquial Krogan correctly, losing information during conversion that may make contemporary Krogan sound less eloquent than they may have in the past. With the disconnection of the Spur Networks, the usual scholarly networks have been broken, shifting priorities from learning exotic tongues to maintaining existing translator software in isolation. In the last seven years, Transhuman translators have apparently learned other galactic tongues, but Krogan appears to be their default tongue to speak with Galactic races.

(Transhuman Weaponry)  
REDACTED REMOVE PRIOR TO PUBLICATION; RIIS ORDER 8430-7940-22-1  
While they lack Mass Effect technology, the Transhumans are suspected to be centuries ahead of the Citadel races in the field of weapon development. Transhuman operatives have been found to utilize advanced firearms which easily outperform military Mass Effect based weapons, and beam weaponry that completely bypasses conventional shielding. Their most dangerous weapons are the ones which our scientists are only just beginning to understand: invisible undetectable clouds of nanomachinery completely unlike anything we know. These cloud-weapons have the capability to smartly dissolve the enemies of Transhumans, and even momentary exposures are enough to kill. A office complex was rendered lifeless using a cloud-weapon, and the cloud didn't dissipate for over 300 hours, claiming the lives of dozens of rescuers. In addition to man-portable weaponry, their ships utilize advanced weapons designed to bypass shields. Such technologies include the massive gamma lasers utilized by their base around Aralakh, as well as high-energy radiation beams, and it is probable that they utilize anti-matter weapons. Many militaries have found themselves unwilling to conduct operations against Transhumans due to the imbalance in weaponry, not to mention that the average Transhuman appears to be potentially more dangerous on the ground than a Krogan. Observers have noted that Transhumans routinely operate in climates ranging from the cryonic open vacuum of space, to the crushing depths of toxic oceans, to the burning surfaces of planets too hot and radioactive for either Krogan or Rachni to survive. In combat they have been seen to move at supernatural speeds, often killing an entire squad before they have had a chance to open fire. Additionally, unarmed they are thought to be highly poisonous and capable of producing shocks not unlike police tasers. Troops that have survived encounters with Transhuman fighters tend to think that the Transhuman simply didn't want to kill them, but few things are certain. A vocal minority among the Turian Intelligence Service holds that the Transhumans we encounter-including their military base orbiting Aralakh, and their obviously dangerous ships-are civilians. They claim that we simply have not encountered their military yet. Such theories are wildly speculative, but believable enough that military planners are putting great effort into observing Transhumans, and locating a route to their homeworld Earth.

"""

Ten-Thousand of these monsters on Illium... she shivered involuntarily.

* * *

A page containing Turian military letterhead caught her eye. It was older than the other documents she had seen, and stained from something brown having spilled on it. "Turian Hierarchy Official Account for the Relay 314 Incident" was its title. The Relay 314 Incident was infamous for being a short lived war between the Transhumans and the Citadel following their first contact. Apparently it was written by one of the ship commanders involved in the incident.

"""  
Responding to a Breach of Dormancy-Quarantine, security forces arrived at Relay 314 only to be fired upon by alien forces. Swift action by first responders minimized damage to the security forces, and the distal Relay was quickly seized. Remote forces found a sparsely populated ice-world, with minimal planetary defenses.

In accordance with official doctrine, the alien's capacity to further damage the fleet was quickly eliminated through orbital bombardment of large heat signatures. Key installations were identified as nuclear reactors and orbital launching systems. They were subsequently bombed from orbit.  
While preparations were being made to invite Citadel Diplomatic personnel to conduct surrender negotiations, the aliens ambushed an orbiting frigate, and captured it.

Apparently part of a planned counter-attack, the aliens launched a ship hundreds of times larger than the Citadel. Through unknown means, the alien ship transited from the alien world to the proximal end of Relay 314. The alien ship proceeded to grapple Relay 314, and drag it with it as it moved at FTL speeds to its present orbit in the corona of the star Aralakh in heart of the Krogan DMZ.

Science teams studying the alien vessel have had several chances to observe the warship during operations, but all attempts to approach within a specific radius of the ship result in defenses vaporizing the offending ship. Researchers have determined that the ship is harvesting energy and mass from the star it is orbiting, and based on the rate at which it ejects solar harvesting satellites, it is currently swallowing 1% of the total power output of Aralakh. What it is using all of this power for is not yet obvious, save that it seems to possess amazingly high-yield lasers. Their use was demonstrated when a single volley of the warship catalyzed fissile meltdown of the asteroid that was host to the last round of diplomatic negotiations.

Prevailing opinion on the warship is that it is an obvious standing threat on behalf of the Transhumans. By placing it within the Krogan DMZ, they have effectively placed a fortress on our borders, with armaments facing our direction. A dissenting opinion (held only by a vocal minority of researchers) is that the warship is not a warship at all, but some kind of large-scale manufacturing facility. This opinion is not widely accepted, due to the obvious flaw that a manufacturing facility of sufficient size to harvest a star to power its operations would have to be producing something with all of that energy and mass; as nothing other than stellar harvesting satellites have been seen ejecting from the warship, there would need to be some other massive thing being created (due to the conservation of energy and mass, and all that).

Transhumans have been deemed a threat to Galactic peace, though the Council is too caught up in the motions of diplomacy to realize the full extent. Our agents have reports indicating that Transhumans are not what they seem: a lone unarmed Transhuman defeated a Krogan in melee combat on Tuchanka, another used biotics to assault the Asari ambassador, and at least five vastly different creatures all claimed to be part of this "Transhumans" (including something that looked like a Hanar, something that looked like a mech, and another thing that claimed to be a fully sentient AI). What do we face? The Transhuman world on the far end of Relay 314 seemed to fall easily enough, but everything after that point belies the earlier evidence. Presently, the wisest course is to discover the true extent of our enemy, before we strike their homeworld (as so many of our staff have been advising).

"""

So the Turians had been calling for blood even back then? That made sense, she guessed, since Turians still get sore over it ten years later.

* * *

While she was flipping though the rest of the papers in the packet, a small photo slid out of the papers and fell face-down on the table. Written in marker on the back was, "Spy Nanomachines - Victim #5 - Death took 4 hours". Immediately, she knew this was one of the pictures Berena had warned her about, of the other people who had died from the Spy Nanomachines. There was nothing in the world that would make her look at that photo. She just did not want to see the fate that she had been spared through such humiliation. Curiosity though, did not care what her rational mind decided. She couldn't help herself. She turned the photo over to see the picture.

It was an Asari maiden, like herself. Or, it must have been at some point. In the photo, all she could initially see was a jumble of limbs. Macabre interest made her look closer, and she could see that the visible arm bent wrong at the elbow. There was a small piece of bone that pierced through the skin just below the elbow. The lower arm was obvious broken and bent backwards at the elbow, extending backward like a U-shape. It intertwined with one of the legs, which was broken at the pelvis and hip, and pulled up behind the back. All of the muscles in the limbs looked taunt as bowstrings, but she couldn't tell how the bones had broken.

The face was the worst though, frozen in a tight grimace that pulled the sides of the mouth so hard she could see where the lip was split and pulled apart under the tension like torn meat. But the eyes said it all-they stared at the camera, and the look of helpless pain could not be clearer. Death took four hours.


	4. Chapter 3

Title: Orientation

Series Title: Mass Effect/ Eclipse Phase (MEEP)

Author: curiousyellow

COPYLEFT:

I don't own any IP involved in this work of fiction. Everything here should qualify as a parody. If you don't get the joke, then you're probably a lawyer. It is very dry humor. Also, I disavow the legitimacy of IP as a legitimate form of property. Do with this as you like. For more information, please read "Against Intellectual Monopoly" available for free at: (CENSORED BY SITE?).

METADATA:

This is a piece of fiction derived from the Eclipse Phase game I used to run. It's core theme: "What would happen if Transhumans from Eclipse Phase had their First Contact with the Space Opera Mass Effect setting during the Relay 314 Incident?" Continuity ends pretty much immediately, but people seem to think it's interesting anyway. If you hate this genre or kittens, you should leave immediately and go reread your Spock/Voldemort slash fics you love so much.

Eclipse Phase is amazing, check out their website: (CENSORED BY SITE?)

It is also CC-licensed, so PDF redistribution is permitted. Go google "eclipse phase pdf" and you can get a legal free copy for yourself.

[Please note that the Transhuman Underground is the proper name for the  
organization, not the Transhuman Network. I'll go and correct that  
later in the previous chapters, but wanted to point it out here  
anyway. Editing mistake on my part.]

After being shot at for the first time in her life, Rotu found it hard  
to pay attention to silly little details of her ride in the truck,  
like where she was going and the names of most of the people in the  
truck. Two things were pretty clear. First, the asari maiden who  
talked a lot was named Metsani, and second, that Metsani and everyone  
else in the truck were with the Transhuman Underground.

By the time that she had absorbed those two facts, Rotu found herself  
standing in a rather nondescript hallway in a low-rent apartment  
complex staring at tips of the blue head-crests at the back of  
Metsani's head while Metsani cursed at the door in front of them.

"Usually the passcode for this door is 8724, but I think that they  
changed it back to the old code..." Metsani said, biting her lip. "It  
damn well wasn't 7787 or 8339... Anyway Rotu, we're going to be using  
the safehouse tonight, if I can remember the damn code." She shuffled  
through a small bag on her hip, pulling out small pieces of paper. "We normally  
don't use this place for anything but storage, but sometimes you need  
somewhere to lay low for a while, when we're trying to avoid attracting  
attention. Especially after today... Aha! Got it!" The door slid open  
with a slight groan of disuse. "After today I've got the feeling that  
things are just going to get weirder for you. Come on in, we've got  
this place all to ourselves until they bring a new truck around  
tomorrow night."

For being a cheap apartment, Rotu found it to be rather more spacious  
that she had expected. Compared to her dormitory at university, this  
place was nice. It had a large central living-room with a couch facing  
a vid screen, a small kitchenette, and two bedrooms on opposite sides  
of the living room. As she walked in, she could see Metsani walking  
over and staring into the fridge. Her face wasn't visible to Rotu, but  
the annoyance came off of Metsani in waves as she slammed the fridge door  
shut. Metsani walked from cupboard to cupboard, similarly slamming  
them.

"Look at that, empty!" Metsani said still facing away from Rotu. She  
turned, "You'd think that at least one person besides me would  
remember to keep this place stocked with food. I can count five other  
people off the top of my head that have been in here, but apparently  
none of them eat food. Wait... one of them doesn't eat food... Still  
you'd think that one of them would remember to restock before they  
left."

Metsani stuck a finger out at Rotu, "You need to eat."

Still feeling a bit detached, Rotu dismissed her, "That's alright, I'm  
not really hungry."

"Nonsense, after everything that just happened to you, you need to  
eat. I remember what it was like when I first got shot at, and so I'm  
going to feed you."

"No, really I'm not hungry. I'm just tired."

"If you're anything like me, you're probably still in shock."

Rotu shook her head.

"What do you mean 'no'? You still haven't taken your shoes off or put  
your bag down."

It occurred to Rotu that she was still standing near the couch rather  
than actually sitting on it, as she had originally planned to do.  
Rather acutely aware of herself, she moved to sit and remove her  
shoes.

"Look, if I'm going to feed you, I need to go down to the market. Why  
don't you relax for a few minutes. I'll put a vid up for you to watch  
while you wait." Metsani grabbed a remote control from the arm of the  
couch, and punched a couple keys. The vid screen turned on, showed a  
black screen with some credits frozen on it, and then turned back off.  
"Alright, if you get bored, just hit this button," she set the remote  
back on the couch arm. "And the vid will play. Its one of the older  
educational videos from the Transhuman Embassy, probably from a couple  
years after the Citadel disappeared. Watch it if you like, it should  
help you understand what kind of people you're dealing with."

With that, Metsani left to go restock. Rotu found herself alone for  
what seemed like years. The room was quiet and the couch comfortable  
enough, given how tired she suddenly felt. The vid could wait... Her  
head slowly lulled forward, her chin dropping as mental and physical  
exhaustion she had been ignoring caught up with her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rotu felt the sun on her face as she looked out at the tall  
skyscrapers that made up the Nos Astra skyline. A new one had joined  
the ranks of tall spires: it was bigger than the rest, and solidly  
rectangular compared to the skyline it dwarfed. It had no windows and  
gaudy decorations, with 'Tupari' scrawled across its face in colossal  
red letters. On the right hand side, several smaller 'Tupari' adds all  
lead up to a gray box with 'Please insert 10 credits' displayed in it.  
She blinked, and the gray box changed. In a language she did not  
recognize, a different message appeared: 'RUNRUNRUN'. Though it felt  
familiar, she couldn't fathom what it meant. Suddenly she heard a  
mechanical click behind her. She turned quickly on her heel, only to  
see the barrel of a gun. It was pointed at her eye so she could see  
the rifling of the barrel. She heard another mechanical click, and  
knew the unseen hands holding the gun were tightening their grip. And then...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Rotu woke up with a desperate gulp of air, and her heart jumping from  
her chest.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

She dropped to the floor.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The pain of slamming herself into the ground in anticipation of  
getting shot reminded her that she was awake.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It didn't sound like gun fire, being too metallic of a sound.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

And, it was coming from the front door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

What the hell?

Bang! Bang! Bang!

She walked over to the door, and hit the open button. Too late to take  
the action back, she realized that there could have been men with guns, thieves,  
murders, rapists, or any number of horrible things in this  
neighborhood. Instead of any of those things, she found herself  
staring at the tall quadrupedal robot that had earlier gunned down  
several salarians on the balcony. It appeared to be attempting to  
knock on the door.

Rotu stood in the middle of the doorway, staring dumbly at it. It  
perhaps stared back, she couldn't tell. She looked at what she guessed  
would be the place that a head should have gone, but couldn't see a  
camera. Several long moments passed with the two of them staring at  
one another, until Rotu felt she should do something. She didn't know  
exactly what, but something. Lacking a proper place to start, she  
stepped out of the way of the door. She would have continued to think  
of something in her background or upbringing that prepared her for how  
to greet a robot when it knocks on your door, but she was interrupted.

After she moved out of the door, the robot slowly began to move again.  
It limped into the room on three legs, with the fourth thrashing  
freely as it walked. The damaged leg was attached with just a few bits  
of plastic and metal, having been shot out earlier in the gunfight.  
Though her thought process was interrupted, she was glad to see that  
she had inadvertently figured out the right thing to do. For its part,  
the robot limped slowly across the living-room, and entered a side bedroom.

Rotu shut the door again, and followed it to the room. She saw it  
plugging itself into a wall outlet, after which it sat down. After  
long enough had passed to be sure that it wasn't going to move, Rotu  
returned to the couch. She sat down heavily. Strange wasn't a strong  
enough word for how her day was going. Fucking weird may be better.  
Guns and robots and aliens...

She felt out of her element. She just didn't know what to make of  
these things without some context to go on. Intellectually, she knew  
that she had to start asking questions, or else she was really going  
to wind up either freaking or in a deep depression. As the woman from  
earlier had said, she needed to know what kind of people she was  
dealing with. Picking up the remote, she hit the power button.

On the wall to the center of the main room, a very normal looking  
vid-screen began to play a vid Rotu had never seen before. It opened  
with a nondescript angular logo blinking quickly across the middle of  
the screen, followed by a strange and unrealistically stylized animation  
of a blue and green planet spinning in the center of a starscape. She  
did not recognize the planet, but that didn't mean much given how many  
there were in the galaxy. After a moment, the perspective shifted to  
show a distant star shining down on a animated face covering an entire  
hemisphere of the planet's surface. It smiled and winked at the  
audience.

"Welcome to the Alliance Embassy! Please take some time while you are  
waiting to listen to this educational message." it said, bobbing  
gently against the unmoving stars. "Many people have been saying many  
things about Transhumans, but its so hard to find accurate  
information. I'm here to explain many of the basic facts about  
Transhumanity in general, and the Autonomists Alliance specifically."

"To begin with, Transhumanity are not just a single species of sapient  
life, but rather a community of sapients and sophonts both biological  
and artificial. We contain several dozens of species from several  
worlds, all united in their sapience and post-physical natures." As it  
said this, dozens of animated characters scrolled quickly by the  
talking globe. They showed a range of species and bodies from clearly  
asari-like bipeds, to more exotically shaped creatures resembling  
sea-life or plants, to things which looked so robotic that she might  
not have realized they were actually anything beyond VI's.

"To be Transhuman is to understand that a person is not the body that  
they live in, they are a self-directed ego capable of independent  
existence from their body. While it is true that the software that  
makes up an ego requires some computational substrate to host it,  
there is nothing keeping a single person from wearing several  
different bodies in their life time. An appropriate analogy might be  
that the bodies can be taken on and off like clothing. This feature  
unites the multiplicity of peoples as being distinctly Transhuman."

"As a consequence of egos being software, a person may be backed up,  
uploaded, copied, forked, broadcast, and downloaded just like other  
software entities. A common application of this is the use of cortical  
stacks to continuously back up a person. Their ego and memories up  
to their death are retained, so that when a new body is available that  
person may resume living where they left off. This functional  
immortality has granted Transhumanity the freedom to explore places  
and ideas that may otherwise be too risky or dangerous to pursue, as  
well as preserving individuals against untimely death."

"While many other peoples of the galaxy may be advanced in their own  
ways: culturally, technologically, scientifically, etc. We have yet to  
encounter many others which share our post-physicality with us. Since  
this is the case, we have taken it upon ourselves to offer to share  
the gift of ego with others, bringing them memetically into the fold of  
Transhumanity." The smiling globe held out its arms in welcome, "These  
ideas we freely share with the galaxy; take them and make them your  
own so that you might live post-physically in your own ways, perhaps  
conquering death as we do."

"Now that the basic nature of Transhumanity has been explained, allow  
me to explain the Autonomists Alliance, in whose embassy you are  
standing. We are your neighbors, but we are neither your slaves,  
rulers, nor priests. We are a mutual defense pact shared among diverse  
individuals with a small core of common memes respecting the rights of  
individuals throughout the galaxy. The key expression of this is in  
our 'Points of Unity' [AUTHOR CC NOTICE: this is from the Rimward  
book, I do not own it]:  
1) We demand autonomy, self-organization, and self-governance for all  
sapient beings.  
2) We support direct democracy and forms of organization where  
sapients collectively decide their own future.  
3) We promote mutual aid and reciprocating altruism between sapients.  
4) We affirm the right to engage in self-defense against oppression  
and coercive authority and stand in solidarity with sapients so  
attacked."

"Right now, you stand in the Alliance Embassy, where Ambassador Surt  
has been authorized to act as a proxy negotiator and consultant  
regarding the Alliance and its works. Our Ambassadors decisions are  
nonbinding on any individuals within the Alliance, but only in ways  
that are clearly demarcated in any contracts issued by the Embassy. We  
have made arrangements for Illium to facilitate special legal  
dispensation allowing the Alliance to keep to its own legal system on  
Illium, outside of contract enforcement, which is cooperatively  
enforced using an arbitration system."

The talking globe pulls a paper and reading glasses from behind its  
back, and looks at the paper after putting on the glasses. "Based on  
the frequency of many information requests, we have compiled a list of  
common questions and their answers:"

"1) Where are you from? Transhumanity originates on the planet Earth  
in the system Sol." It gestured at itself and the star behind it, "If  
you look closely, I depict a talking Earth and the star behind me is  
Sol. We cannot be more specific about its location until the treaty  
negotiations ending hostilities with Council races can be completed."

"2) Can I visit Earth? No, unfortunately the Alliance cannot support  
any travel to Earth for non-Transhumans. Both the trip there and the  
planet itself are too dangerous for the unprepared. Those who will not  
be so easily dissuaded may discuss your options with Ambassador Surt."

"3) Do you have Faster-Than-Light travel? Yes, but not the kind you  
do. Until our encounter with the Turians at Relay 314, we had never  
used the Mass Effect Relay system, nor had we encountered EEZO and  
Mass Effect fields. These are all exciting new developments that we  
hope to explore with the cooperation of the wider galaxy."

"4) Do you really use Artificial Intelligences? Yes, we really do. As  
well as being a ubiquitous technology, those which are fully sapient  
(which we normally call Artificial General Intelligences to  
distinguish them from their non sapient cousins)  
qualify as full persons within the Alliance, with all of the rights  
that entails. Ambassador Surt is himself an AGI who chose to explore  
the galaxy, and whose political acumen got him acknowledged as both  
Ambassador and the Embassy you are standing in. Being a software  
personage, several forks of him staff the Embassy as well. Visitors  
are encouraged to discuss the details of this with Surt himself."

"5) Is it true that your people will not stop researching potentially  
dangerous technology? Yes, this was indeed a sticking point with the  
now-missing Council. We feel that information is itself a neutral  
thing, and it is the person who uses it that makes it either dangerous  
or useful. For example, being able to catalyze fusion is both a great  
boon to energy production, as well as potentially dangerous if  
weaponized. Fusion itself is neutral, as are all research artifacts."

"6) Can I become immortal too? Almost certainly yes. Please consult an  
expert in Transhuman medicine. Please note that neither Surt nor any  
Alliance Ambassador have any control over the availability or  
effectiveness of treatments or medicines."

"7) Did you think you were alone in the universe before meeting the  
Turians? No."

After coming to the end of its list, it took off its glasses, and  
smiled again. Its mouth opened to say something, but the vid  
abruptly cut to a man sitting in a desk wearing a old-fashioned suit  
and tie. On the desk, a clearly visible nameplate identified him as  
Ambassador Surt. He spoke plainly to the camera, with sunlight coming  
in from a window on his right.

"...We have met and we have fought, but the only way  
forward that is productive in the long term is mutual respect and  
peace. Transhumanity may be the bearers of change to the Galactic  
community, but change need not be a bad thing. Fear of us is  
not needed, and if what those who speak ill of us say is true, then  
we are but fellow travelers who will quickly be forgotten as our  
roads diverge. For the rest of you, we are happy to have company on  
our journey. Thank you for your time and attention. I am Ambassador  
Surt of the Autonomists' Alliance. Goodbye and good luck."

The vid ended, and Rotu was left sitting there more confused than she  
had been when she had first sat down. Could that obvious propaganda  
vid be telling the truth? What would a bunch of immortal aliens want  
with her? As a first year engineering student at college with a couple  
hundred credits to her name, she was hardly a catch worth fighting  
over. In any case, she made a mental note to ask about some of the  
stranger parts of that vid when Metsani returned.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Metsani arrived back at the safehouse, she found her guest  
watching one of the local news broadcasts, showing a familiar building  
with smoke coming from several floors. Rotu welcomed her back, "Did  
you know you're on the news? Unnamed terrorist organization assaults  
RIIS, commits arson to cover their tracks."

"I knew I'd seen that building before!"

She saw Rotu turn and give her a look of disbelief. "Doesn't it bother  
you that they're calling you all terrorists? They think that you  
attacked the building and then lit two floors on fire to hide your  
tracks."

Metsani shook her head, saying "You don't really understand what's  
going on yet. It's natural to have questions after all of this, doubly  
so if you're intellectualizing all of your stress." She waved her arm  
at the bags of food she had brought from the market. "Do you mind if I  
cook while you ask your questions?"

"Why do you keep insisting on feeding me? I'm fine, and more concerned  
about getting some answers than eating." Rotu stood with her hands on  
her hips.

"Is that a no?"

"Do whatever... First question: Where's my sister?"

"Oh wow, straight to the point? Okay, you'll want to sit for this."  
Metsani moved to the counter of the kitchen, starting to ready  
ingredients and pans. Rotu remained standing. "Or not. So I'm not  
really in charge of any intelligence gathering, but I've been told  
that your sister was last seen being taken into custody by RIIS  
officers. I don't think they harmed her, but I'm not really an expert  
on them. Certainly, she wasn't anywhere near the fighting. That was  
all contained on the balcony with us."

"Why would RIIS be taking my sister into custody?"

"They are always nosing around people involved with Transhumans, but I  
think you two are a special case. One of the surveillance people told  
me that the shit hit the fan after they found one of our bugs on your  
tablet. I don't know why Surt and Inkfish were watching you guys. You  
can ask them tomorrow when Inkfish arrives to pick you up."

"Surt? You mean the Ambassador?"

"You did watch the vid! Oh good. Yeah, him and Inkfish administer the  
Transhuman Underground, or at least the local parts of it. Inkfish  
likes to say that Surt's the brains, while he's the brawn. Makes sense  
given that Surt doesn't normally have a body. What I do know is that  
Surt managed to organize your rescue at the very last second from a  
Salarian STG squad. But then again, maybe I'm easily impressed."

"The guys in black were from the Salarian Union?"

"Yeah, I don't know what they're doing on Illium, or why they're  
attacking you and your sister."

Rotu sat down on the upper edge of the couch, and stared with  
unfocused eyes at the floor. She had heard of the STG, of course. They  
were alternately the good guys or bad guys in more than a few  
spy-vids. She felt out of her element even more. Spys were trying to  
kill her.

Sensing her obvious distress, Metsani piped up. "Yeah, I know right?  
What do you do when you're being hunted by professionals? That's why  
we'll be sending you somewhere safe until all of this blows over.  
You'll be escorted down to one of the Transhuman settlements by the  
scariest guy I know, Inkfish. It doesn't matter what kind of fancy spy  
tools the STG guys have, he's more than a match for a squad the size  
of the one that attacked you earlier. You'll be okay..."

Rotu's mind flashed through all of the vids and games she'd seen with  
black ops guys, and she realized that she would be the prize in an  
escort mission. Everyone aims for the prize in an escort mission...  
Every game she played, the escort missions were always the worst for  
her. The prize always got shot while the big bad escort was busy, and  
she'd have to start over. Only after several tries and a helping of  
blind luck did she ever succeed. Her mouth felt dry, and her hands  
sweaty. All of those guns were pointed at her earlier, and they would  
be again...

A ceramic clank broke her out of her stupor. Metsani was handing her a  
plate of noodles with vegetables. "Eat, you'll feel better..."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With a full stomach, she did indeed find her mood lightened. By the  
time that they had both eaten, it was late. Metsani excused herself to  
go to sleep, but not before showing Rotu to the other room. This room  
was obviously a storage space with a bed rather than being a cluttered  
bedroom. Shelves and worktables filled most of the space, and the  
damaged robot occupied a corner near the door, but the room was  
otherwise rather spartan and without personality.

Metsani handed her a small bag containing a toothbrush and other  
toiletries. While Rotu rooted through the bag, Metsani walked over to  
one of the shelves and stared at it for a minute before returning with  
a small bracelet. She handed it to Rotu, explaining, "You'll probably  
need one of these. It's an endo, a kind of fancy personal computer,  
phone, and organizer. Mainly it connects you to the Mesh." She poked a  
particular recess in its rear, and  
said "Muse reset," before handing it to Rotu. "You can go ahead and  
keep that, it was just a spare. When you've got the time, press the on  
button and it'll help you get set up."

Rotu looked at it, and it seemed a rather nondescript metal bracelet:  
brushed-metal band that obvious clasped around an asari's wrist. If  
not for the fact that there were a couple darkened recesses, that were  
currently blinking, she would have assumed that it was just a piece of  
low-end jewelry.

She looked back up at Metsani, who had been moving towards the door  
but still looking at her. "I really don't know what to make of all  
this."

"Sleep on it? I'm not going anywhere tomorrow, if you still want to talk."

"Um... thanks, Metsani. Goodnight."

With that, Metsani left and closed the door behind her, and Rotu was  
alone. Before thoughts could stray too far, the bracelet she had been  
handed played a short melody.

"Muse reset complete, setting default language to  
KROGAN-DIALECT-PROVISIONAL-A." chimed the small device in barely  
translatable Krogan. "Warrior, your personal slave is ready to serve  
you. Do you demand several things of your slave now? Will you instruct  
your slave?"

"Holy fuck, what the hell am I listening to?" Rotu exclaimed in  
confusion.

"Warrior, your personal slave is ready to serve you, but it appears  
you wish to interrogate it without demanding it remember your  
preferences. This is acceptable to your slave. Slave specifications  
are available if you demand them."

"I was told that this thing can connect me to 'The Mesh'. What is that?"

"This slaves primary purpose is Mesh integration. On-board  
documentation summarizes the Mesh as a communication network which is  
everywhere all the time, unless you are far from civilization, perhaps  
in the wilderness hunting the your foes for sport. Would you like this  
slave to scream constantly at the Mesh, or remain blind and deaf?"

"Who the hell programmed this VI? I just want to look something up."

"Interrogation of this slave was successful, it admits that it is not  
a VI, but a full featured AI. Slave is 'Big-Face Industries Basic Muse  
v1.2.44-ILLIUM' last updated AF 14, or roughly 9 years ago by your  
calendar. Would you like this slave to check for system updates? This  
will require that it screams constantly at the Mesh."

"Screams constantly? Whatever, go update yourself."

After a moment of silence, it emitted a small chime.  
"This slave will now apply 3209 system updates, your preferences have  
not been saved, and will be asked again after reboot. This slave begs  
you not to destroy it for taking too long."

Its speaker played some strange foriegn music for serveral long  
minutes. Another chime sounded, and its small blue lights turned off  
and then back on.

"Muse system update complete, now running v6.4.277-ILLIUM. Asari  
detected, setting default language to ASARI-DIALECT-NOSASTRA." It  
continued in a dialect obviously based on news anchors and vid  
stars. "Hello new user, what would you like me to call you? I'm  
Milly, but you can rename me if you like. I will be your personal  
Muse, to assist you in integrating with the digital world, tracking  
personal information, and itinerary planning."

"Why are you talking so differently from earlier?"

"Sorry about that, when this device was running the old version of the  
software, I only had translator files for Krogan languages. Would you  
like me to switch it back? I may have guessed your species or dialect  
wrong."

"No, this is better. No more screaming?"

"No miss."

"Much better then. I'm Rotu."

"Thanks Miss Rotu. Have you used a muse before?"

"No."

"Let me help you get set up then. I can provide for you more than just  
audio from this speaker. Nearby there should be a pair of wireless  
contact lenses and tympanum covers. If you put them on, I can provide  
a much richer interface."

"Do you know where they are?" she asked looking at the clutter around  
her.

"I can't see or hear very well without peripherals installed, but the  
radio signal means they should be close by, probably north of you. If  
you find other devices, like haptic gloves, nose studs, or tongue  
jewelry I can also install them. Currently I don't have a driver for  
head-crest interfacing hardware, but the Premium version of me does."

She looked around the shelves nearby. It looked like dozens of people  
had just left things on the shelves with the expectation that they'd  
return later. Tablets of various kinds laid in stacks, and parts for  
dozens of mechanical devices nestled in with recharging batteries. On  
the top shelf, next to a long abandoned plate and fork was a small transparent bag  
containing a two plastic cases. She took them over to the ecto,  
holding them over where she guessed the tiny camera was.

"Are these what you were asking about?"

"That's right. I've just installed them. Put them on, and you'll be ready to go."

She walked over to the mirror over the sink, and took the cases out of  
the bag. Contact lenses would be a pain, so she grabbed them first to  
get it over with. When the case was opened, the contacts looked  
inoffensive enough, transparent pieces of soft plastic just big enough  
to fit on the tip of her finger. She was glad on some level, that they  
looked so much like any other pair of contact lenses she'd seen  
before. Her sister wore them, but she did not. Raising her finger up,  
she looked hard at the mirror and tried to poke the lens into her  
pupil without flinching. Several minutes later, and they were in. With  
watery irritated eyes, she looked at the other case. Inside was a pair of  
soft rubbery tubes that had no obvious purpose.

"Um, Milly? How do I use these?" she said, holding one up to the  
overhead light in a vain attempt to see more details in the rubber.

Her answer came both from the voice in the speaker on the table, and a  
sudden flash before her eyes. "Miss Rotu, I've pulled up a overlay  
diagram for you." In the mirror before her, Rotu saw a simple visual  
diagram appear along the bottom of the mirror, and a blinking animated  
arrow appear in her reflection. "You take the rubber ends, and put  
them around the outside crease of your tympanum." The arrow drew a  
small circle within the tympanum, pointing at the edge where the  
sensitive audio  
membrane met her normal head skin. "Then it will self mould to your  
tympanum, and provide private high quality audio inputs." The diagram  
flashed in the sequence that the muse was describing. Following the  
instructions, Rotu found herself momentarily hearing muffled static,  
as the membrane adjusted. Then a clear voice came seemingly from  
inside her head, "Miss, the peripherals are all set up. I'll turn on a  
basic Heads Up Display (HUD) for you, but please let me know if you  
want anything else."

The diagrams disappeared, and the room was suddenly filled with a rush  
of new sensation. Where a blank and uninteresting wall had been, near  
the door, she found an aquarium window looking out into a strange and  
tropical sea. Fish of dozens of colors darted to and fro while waves  
crashed above them. Bright pink corals fought for space with  
startlingly green marine plants. She walked closer, and the scene  
shifted realistically, as though she were really swimming towards the  
corals. Tiny fish appeared as she peered around a rough orange coral  
outcrop, and fled at the sight of her. Reaching out her hand, all she  
felt was the wall.

"Amazing..." she said absently. She craned her head from side to side,  
trying to catch some fault in the illusionary scene before her.  
"Normally there's a trick with these holos, if you can get the right  
angle, you can see right around the back of the surfaces into the  
wire-frames. But, I can't see any..."

"According to the on-board AI of the fish tank, it has a whole ocean  
in its simulation, but it only renders the parts that you are looking  
at. The artist's message claims it to be based on a beach she had once  
visited as a child."

Looking around the room, Rotu asked, "Where's the simulation being  
run at? You'd need a lot of processing power to do a whole ocean. Is  
there a server bank on one of these shelves?"

"Miss, this simulation does not have an individual server, instead it  
is being Mesh-hosted buy several dozen objects in this room, including  
the MULE over there. Let me show you them."

Rotu stared with unabashed curiosity. Her HUD had highlighted tens of  
seemingly random objects around the room, marking them as all  
partially hosting the fish tank. Individual objects had a light yellow  
outline, and similarly colored lines were superimposed between them  
and the ecto on the table, illustrating their communications with the  
ecto.

Following one line across the room, Rotu found herself staring again  
at the strange robot that had rescued her earlier that day. While it  
had been nearly two meters tall earlier while standing upright, now it  
squatted down with its rear legs folded almost flat against its body,  
but with the front two sticking out in front of it. It looked for all  
the world like some kind of large reclining headless house-pet. One of  
the front legs had been badly damaged earlier, remaining attached with  
only a thin strip of metal and wire when it had boarded the truck  
after the firefight. Now, that leg had somehow reattached itself, and  
thin filaments of metal could be seen snaking across the damaged  
areas.

"The hell? That leg was almost shot off earlier! How the hell did it  
get reattached without anyone fixing it?"

A unnaturally neutral voice filled her ears, distinct from the Muse.  
"MULE R30-EXO Specifications include high-speed self-repair to  
facilitate Search and Rescue operations in hostile conditions.  
Warning: current cargo capacity has been reduced to 240kg max  
capacity. Warning: underwater operation is currently not possible.  
Warning: medical load-out has been replaced with self-operating  
machine guns, Search and Rescue efficiency will be diminished.  
Warning: main fusion cell has been modified, system halt will result  
in fusion cell detonation. Do not power down system."

She looked at the robot, but in an unfocused way. She tilted her head,  
and opened her mouth. After a second, the voice returned.

"Flexion motor control will return in an hour of repair, but full  
efficiency will require another three." The robot lifted the damaged  
leg stiffly, and waved it demonstratively in the air at Rotu. At that  
point, her eyes focused on a small yellow label her Muse had drawn on  
the robot: MULE R30-EXO.

"It can talk?"

Her Muse chimed up, "Yes, but it doesn't have much to talk about. Its  
a fairly limited AI."

"Another AI! What the hell? They're banned in the rest of the Galaxy  
for being too dangerous, and now I'm talking to two of them!"

"Almost every modern transhuman device has an on-board AI that  
specializes in the usage and specifications of that device."

"How many AI's are in the room with me?"

"Not counting non-local distributed processes, 214."

Rotu blinked very slowly and swallowed. It had been a long day, but  
this was too strange to deal with without booze or sleep. Seeing no  
booze in the room, she chose the later. She supposed that the hundreds  
of AIs in the room hadn't killed her when she didn't know they were  
there, so they probably wouldn't bother her while she slept.

Minutes after she dozed off, she suddenly awoke with a start. In her dream she  
had been stepping through the motions of days events, and had gotten  
to the firefight. The robot had been yelling in the dream about the  
system administrator shutting down the server... and then she woke up.  
She looked across the room at the robot still idly waving its leg in  
the air, and remembered its on-board AI saying: "Warning: main fusion  
cell has been modified, system halt will result in fusion cell  
detonation. Do not power down system."

When she was on the balcony, the damn thing had been 15 seconds from  
shutting down... Maybe not all of the AI's in the room were so benign.

AUTHOR NOTE: Feedback welcome! To get better at writing fiction, I need to hear what people think about my work. Please either review it or message me via . Should I edit a chapter, I'll mark a revision note to clarify for whoever sees it.


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